CJ Links Show Red on McAfee SiteAdvisor

The discussion around whether affiliate links may be penalized by search engines and other networks is now getting the full attention it deserves. It appears that Commission Junction's "androezers.net" redirect links, used by tens of thousands of its affiliates, are encountering the dreaded red signal on McAfee Site Advisor.

The implications are quite significant; affiliates and merchants could lose sales or commissions and damage their reputation equally. According to McAfee's SiteAdvisor service, the domain, which CJ uses for redirecting users from affiliate sites to merchant sites, found potential security risks with the site and encourages visitors of the site to use "extreme caution".

CJ is apparently aware of the problem according to an ABestWeb forum thread, and has verified that McAfee blacklisted the link. There are instances when removing the "red" designation has taken months and in some cases years to have it reversed. In the meantime, perhaps its time to shift gears and change networks?